9801 Venice Boulevard

61369801 Venice Boulevard, 1959. Coast Realty Archive photo.

61889801 Venice Boulevard, 2020. CLUI photo.

Dick Caplan’s Culver Carburetor Company and Auto Electric Shop (which was also known as Branton’s Motor Tune Up when it was photographed for the real estate listing in 1959) occupied this lot, with a small office and a garage. The two old structures, built in 1947, are still on site today, and the property is a used car lot called Del Mar Auto, with “most vehicles under $6995.00.” Then, as now, the entrance to the lot is from Delmas Terrace, not Venice Boulevard. The sidewalks on most of Venice Boulevard were widened in the 1960s, when the wide median that once contained the Venice Short Line railway was narrowed.